feeling guilty, anxious about wanting to advance myself...please advice

PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN · Dec 13, 2009

Could this be a cultural thing? As in giving deference to older generations, hence the guilt?

If you truly want to be an anesthesia provider, you shouldn't hold yourself back because you feel your colleagues "need" and "depend" on you.

That's not healthy for you, and moreover, I'm sure they would tell you the same thing--I wouldn't hold anyone back who is qualified for further schooling from improving themselves.

Go to school. Get rid of the guilt.

VegRN · Dec 13, 2009

I understand how you feel and am glad to hear that someone else has the same dilemma that I have. I am a med surg RN and am seriously considering going to graduate school. I feel guilty sometimes too about wanting to advance since bedside RNs are so needed. What helps me is thinking about what I want to do rather than what other people need me to do. I really want to go back to school because I liked school, like to learn new things and am interested in a different career. Also, bedside nursing is so stressful that I don't think I could do it forever and I for sure do not want to work every other weekend and half the holidays forever. I still enjoy it but the excitement has waned over the past few years.

Bottom line is that you have to think about yourself and what you want to do with your life. Good luck to you!

NavyVet · Dec 13, 2009

I don't know how to answer this without seeming like a jerk, so I'll just go for it. You don't owe anyone anything. I know it may seem like a cynical outlook, but you'll only be unhappy and resentful in the long run if you hold yourself back from your full potential out of a misplaced sense of guilt.

Not everyone has the drive, desire, or intellectual capacity to be a nurse. Out of that pool of people who can become nurses, there is an even smaller group that have the desire or ability to become advanced practice nurses. So, if you are one of those with the desire/ability/time to advance your education, you owe it to yourself and your patients to do so. There are new grads coming up behind you to take care of the bedside nursing

mlclove · Dec 13, 2009

Just remember you are not the first person who has to think of themselves and their future. I gotta tell you everyone does it. Don't feel bad for doing what comes natural. Because this is natural. That's how we work we are always striving for the next best thing and there is nothing wrong with that. Good luck to you and hope everything works out well for you.

paindoc · Dec 13, 2009

I think it depends on several factors. Many nurses make the choice to go into CRNA school because of a 300% increase in income $$$$$ and make a faustian bargain in the process by giving up most patient interaction. The vast majority of anesthetics administered in the US are general anesthetics, and regional with sedation is second. In either case, your interactions with patients becomes very limited, and your job will be primarily that of a technician since anesthesia is very routine and much safer now than ever before. If you enjoy significant interaction with awake patients, you may be better served becoming a nurse practitiioner.

Either way, self serving advancement is par for the course in nursing now, and is not a bad thing. One of the great joys in nursing is the ability to advance in different directions when the challenges of one job become too sporifice. That is unless you become a CRNA which is virtually always the final nursing job a person will ever have.